Nokia's Ovi app store goes live | Hacker News Reader

Nokia's Ovi app store goes live

conversations.nokia.com

14 pointsaj19 comments

Is it just me? I find all the ovi services cluttered and hard to navigate. It just does not attract me as a user to spend time there learning their services or shop for apps. It looks and feels like any other corporate website. As much as nokia wants to concentrate on internet services, i just don't see it happening from the user's perspective.

Have you tried it on a device, or are you just going by the screenshots?

Here is one users attempt to use the new Ovi store http://shkspr.mobi/blog/index.php/2009/05/nokia-ovi-store-oh...

And here's another's http://greenerdesktop.com/465/nokias-ovi-store-first-impress...

After looking at that, I can't think anything but "wow, what ugly fonts".. I know that phone isn't an iPhone, but you can still try to do some antialiasing, or something, right? Also, the information density seems pretty low (compared to the App Store).

I'm a little disappointed by the reception this news item is getting here on HN, isn't this a great opportunity for developers? I know HN is heavily Apple orientated site and filled with Flash haters - but Nokia has millions of phones out there and by supporting Flash - gives the Ovi app store a good chance of success.

It does not ship on devices at the moment, making it irrelevant in the great game of app-storeing.

Given who developed it (some Finnish company that diversified out of rubber boot manufacturing), presumably it will ship on devices or otherwise be widely available, so I don't think it's "irrelevant".

You can download the "Ovi App" on existing Nokia phones

Chicken and egg, indeed.

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=626603

You are kidding right? You do not need an app to access the store. You can access it via your browser as well.

And there is a downloadable app.

Whoever picked that name should be fired.

You wait 'til you see the Palm Utus Store and MS' new Filopen Store :P

Here in Padova, there is a Via Falloppio:

http://maps.google.com/?ie=UTF8&ll=45.405923,11.886435&#...

Named after the guy who discovered the body part, who was of course working at the University of Padova.

Speaking of which, 'ovi' in this corner of Italy means 'eggs' (like chicken eggs) quite literally. In Italian, egg is 'uovo'. My wife had a good laugh when she saw the 'ovi store'.

Utus ???

[Bangs head against sharp pencil]

It seems quite good brand name for a service that is targeted for a global audience. Super-short and quite easy to pronounce for speakers of different languages.

How easier than store.nokia.com ?

Or apps.nokia.com ?

Or nokiapps.com ?

Yes but those are boring and lack imagination (no offence meant to you but speaking from a global brand perspective)

Ovi is different yet not overly complicated or difficult to pronounce or remember.

You miss the point: for millions of people words "store" and "apps" are not very familiar. And in their localized phone UI, "store" would look as out of context as any other foreign word.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com